After three decades of near-mythic silence, Souled American is finally breaking it.
The Chicago-bred alternative country band has announced Sanctions, their first full-length album of new material in 30 years, arriving April 17, 2026, via Jealous Butcher Records. Written, performed, and produced by founding members Joe Adducci and Chris Grigoroff, the album marks the duo’s first album-length statement since 1996’s Notes Campfire.
Souled American emerged from Chicago’s late-’80s underground with a sound that felt familiar and disorienting all at once. Drawing from early American folk and country traditions, they bent those forms into something spectral and slow-burning, a style that later admirers would struggle to neatly categorize. Between 1988 and 1995, the band released six albums, including Fe, Flubber and Around the Horn, before slipping quietly out of view as alternative country surged into the mainstream.
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One of the most vocal champions of their legacy has been Jeff Tweedy, who revisited the band’s influence in his 2023 book World Within a Song. Though Souled American were contemporaries of Tweedy’s early band Uncle Tupelo, they never achieved the same level of recognition. Tweedy previously highlighted their song “Before Tonight” in a Pitchfork video, calling attention to what he viewed as one of the great overlooked catalogs of the era.
Interest in Souled American has quietly resurfaced in recent years. In 2025, Omnivore Recordings released Rise Above It: A Souled American Anthology, earning a glowing review from Uncut that praised the band’s genre-defying approach. Earlier reissues and essays from artists like John Darnielle and David Lowery further cemented their reputation as a quiet but foundational influence.
Now, Sanctions arrives as both continuation and reckoning. According to Jealous Butcher, the album was recorded mostly live and without adornment, favoring patience, restraint, and emotional clarity. The label describes it as “ambient Americana rooted in the soil of America itself,” shaped by time, endurance, and voices that have deepened rather than softened.
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The album’s arrival will be marked by a small run of live performances. Ticket descriptions describe the band as “elusive” and “too singular to belong to any one movement,” while name-checking admirers ranging from Jeff Tweedy to Counting Crows.
Upcoming dates include:
April 18 – Catskill, NYApril 19 – Brooklyn, NY (Record Release Show)April 26 – Evanston, IL (Hometown Record Release Show at SPACE)June 26–27 – North Adams, MA (MASS MoCA)June 28 – North Adams, MA (Solid Sound Festival 2026)Fans, many of whom have waited decades for new material, reacted with barely contained disbelief. “They’re the best. I’ve been waiting around 28 years for this album,” one fan wrote, while another simply called the news “Best news ever.” Others immediately began asking about international availability and possible UK dates, with the band confirming the album will indeed be stocked overseas.
After thirty years of silence punctuated by only a handful of scattered tracks, Sanctions doesn’t arrive as a comeback so much as a long-delayed return to the conversation Souled American helped start.
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